Chapter One – Is it a bird? Is it a plane?
Gibbs didn't know why but tonight something felt different.
Could it be a change in the wind? Or perhaps too much rum again, he corrected himself. Alcoholism aside, he was certain of a change in the wind, and he shamefully admitted to himself that it scared him just a little bit.
Looking around from his position in the crows nest, he searched for any sign that his fears were acceptable; same sky, same stars, same sound of the waves lapping against the side of the Black Pearl – but what was that?
There came a slight whistling noise from above him, and as Gibbs looked upwards to survey where this noise was coming from, his eyes opened wide,
"Mother's love… Must tell the Captain… Must do something!"
Scrambling down the rigging and the nets, he again looked upwards – yes, there was something definitely there, a shape against the fading sun. A human shape.
Joshamee Gibbs risked a look to his left – there was the bell, but was it worth rousing the entire crew? The shape growing ever clearer in his eyes silenced the niggling annoyance he anticipated from his fellow crew members; his limbs taking action before his mind could prevent him further.
The bell tolled loudly, accompanied by his calls for help,
"Lads! Captain! I've spotted something!"
Everyone walking up on to the deck turned to look at the door that had slammed open; the captain's door.
"Gibbs, you fool, what's on your mind?" An inebriated, half dressed Captain Jack Sparrow barked, obviously startled by being roused from his sleep.
"Cap'n sir, look above you."
All eyes were upon the figure falling in the night sky, having reached the height of the top of the ship; and it was most definitely a person.
"It's going to hit the deck!"
"Sir, what should be do?"
"Cap'n?"
Jack Sparrow let out a long held breath and rolled his beautiful brown eyes, strutting forth in his effeminate way. He squinted nonchalantly at the figure falling – a girl, he deduced (from the somewhat lack of male clothing), and pushed his way through his gob smacked crew.
"Right you useless dogs, missy here is going to fall, and if we don't catch her, if missy here is not already dead, she will be. Savvy?"
"Aye, Cap'n!"
Gibbs marvelled at quite how long it had taken the woman to fall as he watched her descend the last few feet, falling roughly into the outstretched arms of the men, Captain Jack taking most of the impact. He heaved the girl into his arms and began to walk away, briefly stopping to turn and casually remark,
"Oh, and lads. Watch out for the bag. There." Jack nodded his head in the direction that the girl had fallen from, registering another object following her in a downward plummet.
A brightly coloured bag fell with a thud onto Ragetti and Pintel, leaving them glowering at the Captain as he turned his back and walked to his cabin.
As Jack placed the girl on his own bed he took a good look at her for the first time.
For now, he didn't really want to question as to how she had managed to fall from the sky onto his beloved Pearl, anticipating the answer would befuddle him further, and turn Gibbs into a gibbering mess of "women are bad luck on ships".
A slight sigh escaped her lips, and he leant in further to view said girlie.
My, she was dressed oddly – challenging his unique sense of style. The shirt she was wearing, he mused, was rather low-cut, and combined with her rather lack of clothing to cover her long legs, other than some stockings resembling fishing net, it had probably been a wise decision to keep her away from the crew. Even if it did allow for his own imagination so go slightly awry in the process.
"Stop it, Jack. Don't be so bloody perverted when she can't admire you for the fine man you are."
His self-confidence, which he unfairly thought was mistaken for arrogance, made him smirk at his own joke. Well, he glanced at his bare chest, if she wakes now, there still might be some hope in this cause…
His cabin door burst open suddenly, interrupting his rather immoral thoughts, to reveal a rather shaky Gibbs.
"Yes master Gibbs?" Sparrow arched one eyebrow in his direction.
"Cap'n, I was just wondering.." his first mate continued to mumble incoherently.
"Yes Gibbs, spit it out"
"Is it a woman? A lass? A lady?"
"Aye Gibbs, all three in fact. Quite how I can't imagine."
The joke was lost on Gibbs, and yet again Jack found himself rolling his brown eyes up to the heavens.
"Well you know its mighty bad luck to have women on board, Sir"
"Have you tried telling Ana-Maria that?" Gibbs scoffed at this suggestion.
A voice suddenly broke the atmosphere,
"Not that I want to interrupt your conversation or anything lads, but where the FUCK am I?"
The girl was awake.
And she most certainly looked confused.